Summer Reading & Listening Guide 2021 | Digital Learning & Innovation | Boston University

DL&I Summer Reading 2021

Summer Reading & Listening Guide 2021

Summer 2021 is in full swing. Whether you are traveling, commuting, or simply relaxing, diving into a good summer read or podcast is likely part of the daily/weekly fabric.

With teaching and technology trends in mind, BU’s Digital Learning & Innovation team created a summer reading and listening guide highlighting some of their favorite and most inspiring books and podcasts.

Long Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs that Don’t Even Exist Yet 1st Edition by Michelle R. Weise

The role of education has traditionally been to prepare a person for success in the world. However, in a world that is constantly changing, we need to reframe education’s mission as helping a person stay fit for success in the ever-changing world. This makes education a continuous activity, like going to the gym, or having our periodic medical check-ups. This reframing of education as a lifelong activity will have fundamental consequences for the entire education ecosystem.

Written by the former chief innovation officer of Strada Educational Network, Long Life Learning presents an exciting vision of the future of learning and work, focusing on the innovations that are laying the foundation for a lifelong learning ecosystem. These include personalized navigation, funding support, targeted learning pathways, and clear connections to more transparent hiring processes.

Recommended by Chris Dellarocas, Associate Provost, Digital Learning & Innovation

25 Years of EdTech by Martin Weller

I am a longtime follower of Weller’s blog, . In this book, as in his other writings, he approaches educational technology with both caution and enthusiasm and provides a concise retrospective of how we have arrived at today’s ed tech landscape. I especially appreciated Weller’s insight on the impact of ed tech and data surveillance trends.

Recommended by Romy Ruukel, Director, Digital Initiatives

Teaching Higher Ed Podcast hosted by Bonni Stachowiak

Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast is a teaching and learning podcast with great rewards for a pretty minimal listening effort. The 30-minute conversations between host Bonni Stachowiak and guests highlight teaching issues, strategies, and tools.

The first 20 minutes focus on the guest’s expertise, and the last 10 minutes are devoted to shared recommendations on tools and resources. Put your feet up, grab a drink, and listen – perfect learning conditions for a slow summer afternoon!

Recommended by Deborah Breen, Director of the Center for Teaching & Learning

Failure to Disrupt by Justin Reich

This book offers an interesting look at large-scale education programs and their use of educational technologies. Written by Justin Reich, the director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, Reich also addresses inequalities in education as they pertain to learning technologies.

Recommended by Ernie Perez, Director, Educational Technology

The Spark of Learning by Sarah Rose Cavanagh

We tend to think of emotions as detracting from our ability to think and learn, but in The Spark of Learning, Sarah Rose Canavagh argues that they actually have the potential to ignite curiosity, motivation, and memory. Drawing on research from fields such as neuroscience and psychology, Cavanagh explains how you can use the science of emotion to teach more effectively.

Recommended by Jean Otsuki, Associate Director, Center for Teaching & Learning

This work of political philosophy makes provocative points about the current social and political situation, with higher education and its governance as a key example. Brown warns us of a tendency to view education in narrow terms of money-making, business, and educating “human capital”, and asks us to instead remember the ideal of education as contributing to public-minded citizenship in a global community.

Recommended by Amod Lele, Lead Educational Technologist

Don’t Reply All: 18 Email Tactics That Help You Write Better Emails by Hassan Osman

This book is a concise and quick read with 18 simple tactics to maximize the effectiveness of email communication. It provides actionable takeaways and offers a great reminder of things we learned about managing emails, but may have forgotten at some point. It comes with the downloadable cheat sheet (a PDF file) that summarizes the content on one single page and a Powerpoint that also summarizes the tactics in the book.

Recommended by Maria Afzal, Educational Technologist

Flipped Learning: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty by Robert Talbert

In this book, Robert Talbert provides a comprehensive overview of the Flipped Model of Learning, while targeting instructors with varying levels of experience. Talbert walks the reader through how he began implementing the Flipped approach in his teaching, and covers all the challenges he faced in the initial attempt try, while providing solutions for those challenges. The book is a must-read for anyone considering flipping their course or has already flipped, and is looking for additional ideas.

Recommended by Pary Fassihi, Assistant Director, Center for Teaching & Learning

THE KEY Podcast available via Itunes, Google Play, or Spotify

THE KEY is a weekly podcast that features conversations with higher ed faculty / staff / administrators on how colleges and universities are coping with the pandemic and recession — with a special focus on equity and lower-income students.  THE KEY also provides an opportunity to hear things from the student perspective as well – and the unique issues they face as we transition back to campus.

Recommended by Damon M. Carlson, Educational Technologist

Dear Data by Giorgia Lupi

Information design and data visualization aren’t just Excel charts and graphs – they can be an artful and emotional exploration of personal information. The project and recently published book, Dear Data, captures the postcard exchanges between two long-distance friends Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec. Over 52 weeks, the two friends collected data on themselves and hand drew visual maps of indecision, laughter, goodbyes, clocks, and complaints.

As a part-time student in BU’s CFA Post-Bacc Graphic Design program, we took inspiration from Dear Data and shared and explored our personal data with other BU design students during the early Fall of 2020. Dear Data is a great read not only for its quirky, analog visualization of data, but also for its self reflectiveness and heartfelt authenticity between two friends on opposite sides of the world.

Recommended by Alexis Williams, Administrative Assistant, DL&I Design

Big Proctor, Inside Higher Ed, (May 11, 2020) by Colleen Flaherty

With the surge in remote and hybrid instruction during the pandemic, many instructors or academic programs relied on third-party exam proctoring services to replicate in-person proctored exams. But are proctored exams an effective way of assessing students’ learning? Or, as the author, Colleen Flaherty asks, “Is the fight against cheating during remote instruction worth enlisting third-party student surveillance platforms?” This short read takes a critical look at the remote proctoring and is a relevant topic to reflect on even as we switch back to in-person teaching in the Fall.

Recommended by Dave DeCamp, Educational Technologist